Amid these dog days of summer when the temperatures are brutal enough to melt asphalt and every last measure of patience, it bears noting that one of the most inventive marketing ideas of the 19th century has found occasion to make a comeback: the hotel roof garden.

In New York alone, most every one of the chic hostelries to pop up in recent years—Hôtel Americano, Wythe Hotel, Pod 39 Hotel and the W Downtown—has sprouted a leafy rooftop aerie where the tabletop candles flicker and the views are as stunning as the waitstaff. So trendy have hotel roof gardens become that one of the trendiest—the McKittrick Hotel’s Gallow Green—sits atop a fictional hotel. (Psst: The building’s really just a warehouse. Don’t tell anyone.)